Saints Row: The Third: The Basics

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Read why Volition's upcoming open-world epic is shaping up to be more fun than you can shake a wobbly dildo at.

By Tristan Ogilvie

Saints Row: The Third is the latest game in the GTA-inspired crime series from Volition. Whilst Rockstar took a sharp turn towards realism with GTA IV, the Saints Row series has maintained the over-the-top trajectory established with last generation's Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, and Saints Row: The Third pushes the exaggerated action to new heights - and the toilet humour to new lows.

So what's the story? The third in the series sees the Saints gang relocate from the Stilwater setting of the first two games to the Chicago-inspired fictional town of Steelport. What that essentially amounts to is an entirely new city to takeover via more turf wars with a new set of gangs - the Morning Star, the Luchadores and the Deckers - with each gang reporting to one huge international crime organization known as the Syndicate. There's also the government-employed Special Tactical Anti-Gang force to contend with (yep, that's 'STAG' for short).

That's all well and good, but can I slap homeless people in the face with comically-sized sex toys? We're glad you asked, and yes, yes you can. You can also dress up in a bunny suit and crane-kick people in the balls. Or load up hapless pedestrians in your man-cannon car and launch them face-first into the skyline. Or call in a freaking airstrike on a rival gang.

But it's not all Jackass-style shenanigans, Saints Row: The Third is also capable of delivering some seriously intense action set pieces, such as one of the very first missions in the game which sees you attach a helicopter winch cable to a bank vault and airlift it out of a high rise - whilst dangling from the dislodged vault by the fingertips of one hand and shooting pursuers with an Uzi in the other.

Wow - it sounds like they took everything I loved about Saints Row 2 and added an awesome button! As a matter of fact, that's exactly what Volition has done. In Saints Row: The Third there's one button on the controller - dubbed the 'awesome button' - that you can hold down whilst performing almost any action in the game to add a little bit of flair and speed to it. So instead of stealing a car by cumbersomely opening the door, wrestling the driver out of the car and onto the pavement, getting into the driver's seat and driving away; you can hold down the awesome button, missile-kick the driver right out of the passenger side window and land with both your feet on the accelerator.

On top of that Volition has added choice and consequence to a lot of the game's missions. For example in one you're given the option of using a large bomb to level a skyscraper. Take the building out and you'll earn respect from your rivals, yet the city skyline will remain altered for the rest of the game and the Steelport citizens will be antagonistic towards your gang as a result. Spare the skyscraper and you can move your gang into the penthouse and use it as a new HQ. So it's kind of like the Megaton moment in Fallout 3.

... With more dick jokes.

This all sounds like something I'd like to share with friends. How's the multiplayer? As with Saints Row 2 you can play the entire game in co-op with a friend online - whether it be story missions, side activities, or just dogfighting in jump jets in the Steelport skies.

"Tag, you're it!"

Unfortunately, as with Red Faction: Armageddon, Volition has decided to remove competitive multiplayer from the game in order to put all of the developmental focus on the single-player and co-op. It stings a little, but it's kind of understandable given that every man and his FPS-playing dog will probably be playing either Modern Warfare 3 or Battlefield 3 online come November.

So when can I get my dirty mitts on it? Saints Row: The Third should be another guilty pleasure when it hits the streets on November 15th of this year.